The scheduled seven-day signature campaign by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was interrupted on Thursday when the police arrested chairman Mohammed Yasin Malik near Budgam in the south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

The police also arrested his deputy Javed Ahmed Mir and senior party functionary Noor Mohammed Kalwal, who were arrested at Hellar in Kokernag area of Anantnag.  

They were detained for 'unlawful activities' and were produced before judicial magistrate in Anantnag, who remanded them to five days judicial custody, police sources said.

The arrests triggered protest demonstrations by JKLF activists outside the party headquarters in Maisuma locality in the afternoon.

Malik had launched the campaign to gauge public opinion on the recent Indo-Pakistan peace talks and had already gathered 9,000 signatures in the first day itself.

The arrest follows strict instructions by the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed to the police, to 'put behind bars released separatists who try to disrupt peace'.

Mufti had earlier said, "They can continue their political activities and we will fight them politically."

Malik is the first senior All-Parties Hurriyat Conference leader to be arrested by Mufti's government since he assumed power in November 2002.

Addressing a gathering in south Kashmir on Wednesday Malik had said, "Kashmiris were the real victims of the conflict and unless they voice their aspirations no one was going to come to them."

With inputs from PTI